So a funny thing happened when members of York High's football team showed up to stock trout.

It went well.

These players were not avid trout fishermen.

"I think we had one or two guys with fishing experience," York High football coach Russ Stoner said.

York High football player Dahmier Banks hands a bucket full of live trout to a teammate for stocking.(Photo: Courtesy of Hopewell Fish and Game Association)

And yet, when organizers looked back on the day, they couldn't believe how well it went.

"We had our member meeting, and each of us had to express how much fun we had with them," Hopewell Fish and Game Association member Mike Males said.

The association raises and stocks trout in area streams to supplement the work of the Pennsylvania Fish and Game Commission. From the outside, a group of teenagers with limited experience in the outdoors did not sound like a perfect group to help.

But they proved to be just that.

Members of York High's football team helped stock 300 trout on the south branch of Codorus Creek near Glen Rock. Four members of the team strapped on chest waders to net the fish out of the association's raceway. The rest of the group lined up for the bucket brigade, passing loaded buckets of water and live fish to the truck for transport.

"These kids all worked together," Males said. "They're a team and that's what made it so enjoyable and successful. That was better than any fishing experience we've had ... I would be reluctant to bring another group without their type of unity, that would just be awful."

Males noted that the organizers started "cutting up" with their friends, and the kids picked right up on it. They started joking around with the men and with each other.

This is part of Stoner's goal.

Through a program called Accountable for Life, he pulls the kids out of their comfort zone, puts them in a real-life situation with strangers and has them walk away with a positive experience. A day on the creek is part of a bigger mission at York High.

"Ninety-nine percent of it has nothing to do with football," Stoner said.

Membership in AFL is earned through GPA and behavior.

This is all about the kid. Period. But because Stoner is a football coach, he's geared it toward his football team for right now.

The group talks about how a student should act on a first date. Benevolence is also part of the group's five pillars, so trips are planned to volunteer for spring cleaning at a firehouse.

Personal growth and leadership are stressed. After learning several of his players had never been bowling or played miniature golf, he put those two activities on the AFL planning schedule.

"Right now I'm coaching AAU basketball, and there are kids from all different schools with all different skill sets and they have no idea how to interact with each other," Stoner said. "It's so disheartening to see a bunch of teenagers believe they have nothing in common."

One of the goals is to teach kids how to get through this thing called life.

The bigger picture, however, is teaching students how to help one another. And teaching them how rewarding it can be to help on another.

It's sports. It's education. But, more importantly, it's life.

"We have the ability to interact with 55 kids, and we can do a lot of things in a day with 55 kids," Stoner said. "If I can get one or two or three kids to give back as an adult, I will be happy as all get out."

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Members of York High's Accountable For Life program hand buckets loaded with live trout down a line to load the fish on a transport truck for stocking at Hopewell Fish and Game Association. Courtesy of Hopewell Fish and Game Association